General

By INU Staff INU - Ever since Donald Trump won the American presidency, there have been serious questions about the survival of the Iran nuclear deal that was spearheaded by his predecessor. Trump publicly regards the deal as one of the worst ever negotiated, and he originally promised to simply tear up the agreement, although this promise appears to have moderated since he took office in January. Still, there is considerable speculation that his initial moves to confront the Islamic Republic of Iran could have the effect of forcing the deal’s failure. In fact, it is possible that this outcome is specifically intended.

The newly elected US President’s administration imposed sanctions on Iranian entities involved in weapons procurement last month. This occurred just two days after Donald Trump officially put the regime “on notice” for ballistic missile tests.

In a recent statement, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stated, “I do not fear Trump. We must thank the new American president because he showed the real face of America and because he exposed what we have been saying for decades about the political, moral and economic corruption in it.”

INU - A number of reports emerged on Monday which sought to analyze the aftermath of Friday’s celebration of the 38th anniversary of the founding of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Iranian regime holds massive demonstrations on this occasion each year, complete with coordinated chants of “death to America.” But this year, those chants had brand new context, given the recent inauguration of US President Donald Trump and his subsequent moves toward a much more assertive Iran policy than that of his predecessor.

Last year the remaining residents at Camp Liberty in Iraq, members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), were finally relocated to safer places. After years of being in danger from attacks by the Iranian regime, it was great news to hear that the long-suffering residents were finally free. However, despite this good news it is important to note that this should have happened a long time ago.

The Obama administration could have taken the opportunity to criticise the Iranian regime for using Shiite militant groups to attack the camp on several occasions, killing dozens of people in the process. The residents were the targets of repeated missiles which could be traced back to the IRGC. The White House never called Iran up on this.

In the headlines last week we heard about President Trump’s first Supreme Court nomination – something of a historic choice.

A matter of hours later, Washington announced that Iran was being officially put “on notice”. The news was delivered by National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, a former director of the Defence Intelligence Agency.